Wedding Forum - Thomsons Wedding Quite stressed out :(...

Hi everybody,

My partner booked our wedding may last year through a thomsons superstore as a suprise for me.
We are getting married in dominican republic punta cana.
Thomson have been ok the person ive been dealing with has been ok. However i can not deal or ask questions without my partner being there because its in his name and he booked it. Which is making me one very stressed bride!!

I was told through a friend that i would need to have my bands read/posted before i go.
And we would both need an interview before we go with a registrar.
So i contacted the registrar and she said no we dont need to do any of the above.
However i went in to the thomson superstore yesterday to ask some questions.
I asked both of the above questions and the lady whos been dealing with us and the super store manager both told us that we do need to have our bands read/ posted and we do need to have an interview with a registrar.
And then the lady said phone the wedding and clerical team, theyre not open today but phone on monday.

I went home and phone the weddings and clerical team up and they were there and answered all my questions.
Why did the lady in the store fob us off and tell us to phone on monday and sent us on our way? Why didnt she phone the place up whilst we was there with her? After all we have payed over £4500 for this wedding. And i fail to see what thomson have done for us accept give us false information!!!

The biggest suprise that we both had on the phone call to the lovely lady in weddings and clerical team is that its going to cost us almost £1150 just to get 2 x birth certificates and 2 x documents from a solicitor to be translated in to spanish.
Not once has the lady in thomsons told us how much it would cost to translate these documents into spanish.
Having dealt with the lady in thomsons several times now. She has Not mentioned one word off how much it is going to be to translate these documents!
So in total its £5650!!! And now im having second thoughts of even going to dominican to get married!

Can someone please give me some advice on the translation of these documents?
Or reassure me that its going to be ok?
At the moment im not happy at all with thomsons and i will not be dropping this. Once ive thought about everything i will be telling thomson exactly how i feel and i will not be dealing with thomson again!

this is from the Dominican republic embassy website

Marriage


LEGAL REQUIREMENTS FOR MARRIAGE IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
The following documents must be legalised:

1) Complete Original Full Birth Certificate or an Official Extract including parents´ names ; and
2) According to his/her situation:
a) If never married: A Statutory Declaration, stamped by a Notary or Solicitor, declaring single marital status and eligibility to marry.
b) If divorced: Decree Absolute and a Statutory Declaration, stamped by a Notary or Solicitor, declaring marital status and eligibility to marry.
c) If widowed: Spouse’s Death Certificate, previous Marriage Certificate and a Statutory Declaration, stamped by a Notary or Solicitor, declaring marital status and eligibility to marry.
3) If a name has been changed by Deed Poll or if the person has been adopted, proof of this must be presented.
4) If the person is under 18 years old, parental consent is required in the form of an Affidavit stamped by a Notary or Solicitor.

NOTES:
• Statutory Declarations are to be declared per person (i.e. joint declarations are not accepted) and must include passport numbers, address and line of employment. A model Statutory Declaration can be downloaded from here.
• Statutory Declarations are valid for a period of three months from the date of issue.
• Divorced women cannot get married again until 10 months after the divorce is finalized, unless her new husband is the same man she divorced.

Procedure for legalisation:
Each original document (Document in English) must be legalised by both the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
1) Documents must first be sent to the Legalisations Office at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Please contact them for further information about the procedure.
2) Documents must then be sent to the Consular Section of the Embassy for translation and certification.


Translations and certifications:
All documents must be translated into Spanish and certified as true copies of the original by the Embassy. The fee for translations is £160 per document. If you already have had translations made by a registered commercial translator, the fee for their certification as true copies is £130. Please note that if you use a commercial translator, the Spanish documents will still need to be certified by the Embassy.

When submitting handwritten documents, please make sure they are clearly legible or include a note clarifying the difficult to read sections.

Please note that the fee for translations is separate from the cost of legalising original documents for marriage. Translations will be processed in seven (7) working days.


PRIORITY SERVICE:
In cases of emergency, documents may be processed within 4 working days. They will be posted Special Delivery, as long as such an envelope is provided. There is a fee of £10 for this service.

We strongly recommend that once you get married in the Dominican Republic, you make a record of your marriage at your local Foreign Office, for which you will need to translate your Marriage Certificate into English. Please refer to the “Legalisations and Translations” section of this website for information on how to do this.

You can now pay for the legalisation of documents online.
Pay for your documents now!
Consular Section
Embassy of the Dominican Republic
139, Inverness Terrace
Bayswater
London
W2 6JF

That is brilliant information thank you.
I just feel at the moment that Thomson have basically just wanted and had our money and not helped us at all with any of the questions that we have asked.